Associate Professor Daphne Rickson, PhD, teaches music therapy at the New Zealand School of Music – Te Kōkī, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She has practiced music therapy and undertaken research with a range of client populations but particularly with children and adolescents in schools. Her research has involved critical analysis of the concept of disability and investigation into music as an inclusive resource, including: Participatory Action Research with young people who have intellectual disability; an investigation into singing for wellbeing in a Christchurch school severely affected by earthquakes; song-writing with adolescents experiencing life-limiting illness; and music therapy with children who have Autism Spectrum Conditions. Daphne is co-author, with Katrina McFerran, of Creating Music Cultures in the Schools: A perspective from community music therapy (2014).

One of topics she touches on in this podcast is the importance of NZ MT trainers collaborating with Maori to ensure their programme is as welcoming/appropriate as it can be for Māori students, while also noticing and valuing that Maori have their own healing processes involving music. For those interested in learning more, Māori student, Ruby Solly's writes of her use taonga puoro in music therapy practice at http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/handle/10063/8260.